| At the end of 2020,all the rural poor in China under the current standard shook off poverty;all the poor counties and the impoverished villages got rid of poverty.Poverty over entire regions has been eliminated,and the arduous task of eradicating extreme poverty has been accomplished.The complete elimination of extreme poverty does not mean the total elimination of poverty;relative poverty will be prominent and persistent.This means that the work of poverty alleviation will shift from an offensive war to a protracted war,focusing on solving the problem of relative poverty.China is not only the country with the largest elderly population in the world,but also the pace of population aging is gradually accelerating.With the change in the direction of poverty alleviation and the acceleration of population aging,the governance of relative poverty among the elderly population is imminent and has become the top priority of relative poverty governance.At present,the governance of relative poverty among the elderly population faces the following challenges: the coexistence of population aging and aging before getting rich,difficulties in identifying relative poverty among the elderly population,high vulnerability to relative poverty among the elderly population,imbalance between relative poverty and regional development,and imbalance between relative poverty and urban-rural development.With the introduction of the concept of social capital and the continuous development of social capital theory,the importance of social capital has attracted widespread attention in the academic circle,which provides a new perspective to solve the relative poverty of the elderly population.In the context of gradually realizing the common prosperity of all people,this paper takes social capital as a research perspective and combines theoretical and empirical research to deeply analyze its influence on the relative poverty of the elderly population,with the aim of providing suggestions for cultivating social capital of the elderly groups and improving the governance level of relative poverty of the elderly population in the “post-precision poverty alleviation period” in China.Based on the social capital theory,relative poverty theory and social stratification theory,this study systematically summarized and analyzed the relevant literature at home and abroad,used the data of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS)in 2018,took the elderly population aged 60 and above as the research object,and the index system of relative poverty including 13 indicators in 3dimensions of income,material,and health was constructed to analyze the impact of social capital on the relative poverty of the Chinese elderly population.First,this study used the “A-F double critical value method” to measure and decompose the multidimensional relative poverty of the elderly,and defined the relative poverty of different dimensions.Then,the effects of social capital on the multidimensional relative poverty of the elderly population were analyzed using multiple linear regression model and quantile regression models,and endogeneity was treated using the instrumental variable regression model,and the mediating effect was tested using structural equation model.Finally,binary logit regression models were used to analyze the effects of social capital on different dimensions of relative poverty among the elderly population,and then the mediating effects were tested respectively using generalized structural equation models.The main conclusions of this study are as follows:(1)In China,the average degree of multidimensional relative poverty of the elderly is 0.3144,the incidence of multidimensional relative poverty(IMRP)is49.15%,and the multidimensional relative poverty index(MRPI)is 0.2382.The IMRP,MRPI and contribution rate of the urban elderly are far lower than that of the rural elderly,which is mainly influenced by the great wealth gap between urban and rural areas.The IMRP,MRPI and contribution rate are highest in western region,second in central region and lowest in eastern region,which is consistent with current echelon pattern of regional economic development.There is no significant difference in IMRP among the elderly in different age groups;the MRPI of the senile elderly is the highest,but the contribution rate is the lowest;although the MRPI of the young elderly is the lowest,the contribution rate is the highest.The top two contributors are computer(pad)and heating facility;the two indicators with the lowest contribution rate are housing building construction and TV.The contribution rate of income dimension is 30.50%,that of material dimension is 38.15% and that of health dimension is 31.34%.The incidence of income relative poverty among the elderly is21.80%,material relative poverty 75.68% and health relative poverty 49.21%.(2)All elements of social capital,namely social network,social participation,and social support,have significant negative effects on the multidimensional relative poverty of older adults,and social capital also has a significant negative effect.The results show that social capital has less effect on the poor elderly than the rich elderly,and widens the gap between the rich and the poor within the elderly,which is manifested in the “Matthew effect”,that is,the elderly who occupy more social resources further obtain more resources by virtue of their dominant position,thus showing a lower degree of poverty.The effect of social capital on multidimensional relative poverty is higher among urban elderly than rural elderly.The effect is highest among the elderly in the eastern region,followed by the elderly in the central region and the elderly in the western region.The effect is highest among the elderly in the lower age group,followed by the elderly in the middle age group,and social capital has no significant effect on the elderly in the upper age group.The effect of social capital on poverty alleviation also shows the Matthew effect between urban and rural areas and between different regions,and social capital widens the wealth gap.Economic capital and consumption expenditure play multiple chain mediating roles in the effect of social capital on the multidimensional relative poverty level of older adults.(3)Social capital has a significant negative effect on the income relative poverty status,material relative poverty status,and health relative poverty status of the elderly.Social capital has a significant negative effect on the income relative poverty status of the elderly in urban areas and the elderly in the eastern region,showing the Matthew effect between urban and rural areas and between different regions.Social capital has a higher effect on the material relative poverty status of rural older adults than urban older adults,and a higher effect on older adults in the eastern region than those in the central region,while it has no significant effect on older adults in the western region,showing the Matthew effect only between different regions.The effect of social capital on the health relative poverty status of the elderly in urban areas is higher than that of the elderly in rural areas,and the effect on the elderly in the eastern region is the highest,followed by the elderly in the central region and the elderly in the western region,showing the Matthew effect between urban and rural areas and between different regions.Economic capital plays a fully mediating role in the effect of social capital on the income relative poverty status of the elderly.Economic capital and consumption expenditure play multiple chain mediating roles in the effect of social capital on the material relative poverty status of the elderly.Economic capital and leisure expenditure play multiple chain mediating roles in the effect of social capital on the health relative poverty status of the elderly.Finally,this study proposes the mechanism for cultivating social capital of the elderly population in three aspects of expanding the scale of social network,improving the level of social participation,and increasing social support,and puts forward the mechanism for relative poverty governance of the elderly population in four aspects of establishing a sound wealth reserve mechanism,a poverty identification mechanism,a comprehensive governance mechanism,and a policy convergence mechanism.The mechanism of improving poverty alleviation effect of social capital is proposed in three aspects: actively cultivating the social capital of the elderly with the participation of multiple parties,forming anti-poverty targeting mechanism by relying on social capital,and expanding the space for the elderly to participate in more economic activities. |
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